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Beta Rogue Rotation APM

A few days ago I posted my thoughts on rotations for each spec on beta, a couple days Vigilate posted his thoughts on combat on Sentry Totem which mostly lined up with my own. One thing sorely lacking from both our analysis was numerical backing. Today in #ravenholdt someone asked what the actions per minute for combat would be in WoD compared to MoP so I decided to compute this for all three specs.

A couple notes about these APM computations. These are simple steady state models, they do not take into account time varying stats or temporary buffs unless otherwise noted. Vanish is not taken into account which would increase the APM of each spec somewhat. The stat amounts for each spec are based on the ilvl 660 premade gear which I believe is equivalent to WoD Normal/MoP Flex level gear, additionally to see if “haste will fix it” computations are done for two other haste points. The upper haste point of 1500 haste rating is something I believe will be reachable during the first tier since the premade gear set is somewhat light on haste and not enchanted which can add an additional 540 haste. The MoP models use WoD stats but otherwise uses the MoP launch mechanics, so for example 40 energy sinister strike and no ruthlessness for combat.

Mastery for combat and crit for assassination are held constant between the haste points. All models assume Lemon Zest as the level 100 talent, the combat model adds 3 target LZ with blade flurry. 3 target LZ is not considered for other specs because AoE rotations are not set in stone yet and number of targets adds more complexity than it adds in clarity.

These numbers confirm a number of the observations made about rogue dps specs.

Assassination is much faster. A number of people have commented that assassination on beta feels much smoother than it does on live and these numbers bear that out. Assassination gains more than 4 APM over MoP which helps make the spec feel much smoother at low ilvls.

Combat is slower. While both assassination and subtlety both gained APM going from MoP to WoD due to true haste buff and lemon zest, combat loses 1 APM due to increased SS energy cost. Despite this combat’s energy regen appears to scale faster with haste than it did in MoP, note that despite starting 1 APM slower in WoD at the 3rd haste point combat is as fast as its MoP equivalent and if you were to extend that more, for example to T18 levels of haste, it would more than pass the MoP APM. This could cause issues for combat down the line, while the enhanced AR perk will probably keep combat from ever GCD capping during AR as Vigilate has pointed out previously very few people actually enjoyed the 0.5 second GCD during ToT.

The gap between AR and not AR is lower than MoP but still problematic. The loss of shadow blades slows combat down by about 14% during adrenaline rush, however the APM gap is still quite substantial. The drastic difference in speed between the two states exacerbates the sluggish feeling of the spec without adrenaline rush up. Additionally, while I do not attempt to quantify restless blades interaction here the slowdown during adrenaline rush leads to a longer effective adrenaline rush cooldown which makes the spec feel slower still.

A number of people have expressed an interest in how these are computed. The spreadsheet isn’t particularly well documented but it should be understandable. At a high level these computations are based on the resource budget modeling technique discussed previously in the context of ShadowCraft. If you have questions about the spreadsheet leave them in the comments or come join the conversation in #ravenholdt.